Crawford Country Day
by LovelyMagickUnicorn
Summary: Faberry Week Day 3: Boarding School. Quinn isn't completely accustomed to her new school, or it's social hierarchy. She's not the most popular girl in school anymore, her crush is.


AN: Let it be said now that I know (more or less) nothing about boarding schools apart from what I've seen on TV which is mostly inaccurate stuff, so yeah. Enjoy everyone. Sorry for the uninspired title.

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><p>When Quinn had finally gathered the courage to come out to her parents, she had fully considered the possibility that she'd end up being shipped off to boarding school. As such, it wasn't much of a surprise when they immediately enrolled her at Crawford Country Day. Their reasoning for doing on the other hand had been quite unexpected. Instead of trying to 'straighten' her out, they wanted to ensure that their daughter had a safe environment to learn in. It had been a bit hard to believe at first, but their concern seemed genuine and they visited often.<p>

It was weird, but Quinn was thankful. But she was also a bit frustrated, and yes she was frustrated in that way. Suffice to say, attending an all-girls school would mean that there would be plenty of cute girls. And there was one in particular that Quinn quite smitten over. Her name was Rachel Barbra Berry, and she had awesome legs. That was the first thing that Quinn had noticed. The skirts that Rachel wore technically broke Crawford's dress code, but her small stature gave off the impression that she was following the rules.

She wasn't, but Quinn didn't mind and surely wasn't going to say anything about it. She felt pretty guilty about it but any sense of dignity that she may have had seemed to just disappear whenever Rachel walked past, her hips swaying back and forth. Never before had Quinn seen something so simple look so sexy. Of course there was more to Rachel than just a pretty face and great legs. She also had an incredible singing voice and was, in a way, Little Miss Popular. That probably wouldn't have been the case in a public school, especially since she was openly gay, but things were different in Crawford.

As such, it should have been easy to go up to her and just talk and maybe even ask her out but during the first few weeks in which Quinn attended Crawford she just couldn't. She blamed it on an innate fear she had developed while attending McKinley. She had to be a bitch while she was there; put up a façade so that no one could figure out the truth. Otherwise she'd be burned at the stake like a witch... that and every boy in school would hit on her.

Technically though, ever boy in school did hit on her but if they knew she was gay then they'd be doing so for different reasons. Some would try to un-gay her and others would proposition threesomes. That's exactly what had happened to Santana when rumors started spreading about the nature of her relationship with Brittany. It was awful but the three of them stuck together and everything worked out fine.

But now Quinn was alone. There was no reason to be afraid though, and yet she was. Quinn had never asked a girl out before. What if she was awful at it? That would be dreadful. Quinn couldn't bear the thought of embarrassing herself like that, especially not in front of Rachel. She'd never be able to show her face at Crawford again, and her parents would have to find another school for her to attend. She couldn't that to them, especially since they spent a lot of money so attend Crawford in the first place.

Also, Quinn liked Crawford. They had a great faculty, a welcoming student body and a huge library. The only thing that was missing was her best friends. Admittedly though, she didn't miss the hassling that they'd give her for not making a move. That she could do without. She'd have to make sure not to mention Rachel's name anywhere near them.

But since they weren't around Quinn spent a lot of time in the library. The reading selection was unlike anything she'd ever seen before and the girls at Crawford knew how to take care of things. Every single book looked brand new. No pages were torn or bent or anything at all like that. It was a nice place to be. There were usually plenty of girls there, but on one particular day it was especially full. It was still very quiet though so she didn't think it was necessary to leave.

After finding something that she found interesting enough to read she took a seat at the far end of one of the tables. Quinn opened up her book and got lost in the pages. She had a habit of doing that whenever she read something, usually to the point that she'd block out all other things. And so she was genuinely surprised and nearly jumped out of her seat when someone tapped her on the shoulder after she had gotten through a few dozen pages.

That would have been embarrassing. She looked up and her eyes widened. "Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?" Rachel asked sweetly as she gestured to the chair beside Quinn. Mouth slightly agape, Quinn simply shook her head. Rachel smiled widely, those pearly whites shining so bright that they nearly blinded Quinn. "Thanks." She straightened out her skirt before sitting down and then unslung her bag from over her shoulder. She placed it atop her lap and began rummaging through it. "The place is really packed today, isn't it? I was hoping to get some homework done, and I can't use my room because it's… preoccupied." Quinn dumbly nodded along and then, upon realizing what she was doing, buried her head into her book.

She couldn't believe herself, couldn't believe how much of a fool she had acted like. Luckily, Rachel shouldn't have noticed. She couldn't have noticed; she had been too busy searching through her bag. She tried to keep to herself but Rachel kept talking. She told Quinn about how her roommate had snuck her boyfriend in. There was a strict 'no boy' policy when it came to the dorms and Rachel said that she would have reported them, but she thought that they looked so cute together. She admitted to being a bit of a hopeless romantic.

Quinn thought it was cute and she giggled. Rachel's cheeks reddened a little, but she just kept on talking and Quinn found herself listening. It was a very one-sided conversation but even if Quinn was able to think of something to add Rachel didn't really give her much of an opportunity to provide some input. She talked a lot, a detail that Quinn had never noticed before. Normally, she'd find such a trait to be annoying but instead she just found it adorable.

All the while, Rachel pulled things out of her bag and arranged them neatly on the table. Once she was done, she suddenly stopped talking. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt your book. Don't mind me." She quickly opened her textbook to a random page and started studying it. The look on her face told Quinn that she was on the wrong page, and her suspicion was soon confirmed when Rachel flipped over to an entirely different chapter.

"It's okay," she told her, thankful that she was finally able to find some words. "I don't mind." She earned a smile from Rachel. But that smile was quickly replaced with a confused, albeit cute, frown. Her brows knitted together in the most adorable of ways. "What is it?" Quinn asked. Despite how cute Rachel looked, Quinn wanted to make sure that everything was okay. Also, she wanted to make sure that she hadn't done anything to ruin things already.

Apparently, she hadn't. "Nothing, it's nothing," Rachel told her with a shake of her head. "You just look really familiar. Do we have any classes or…"

"No, I don't think so," Quinn answered coolly, so as not to reveal how closely she paid attention to things like that. Rachel slowly nodded as though in agreement, but she wasn't quite ready to admit that she was wrong. She looked Quinn up and down, trying to find something that would help remind her of where she knew Quinn from. "Maybe you've seen me walking down the halls," Quinn suggested with a shrug. "I haven't even been attending Crawford for long."

"Oh, really?" Quinn nodded in response. "Well, have you been enjoying your time here? I know that my first few weeks here were pretty scary, but everyone was really nice and welcoming. They had me feeling at home in no time."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Quinn laughed. "I was scared at first too, but now… now I'm actually really happy," she admitted aloud for the first time since she first started attending Crawford. She hadn't really thought about it much before, but she was happy; genuinely happy, not the same kind of happiness that she had felt in her old life. It was a nice feeling.

"Good. I'm happy for you." She turned to her things, which had been mostly untouched. "I should really get to work," she said with a giggle. She extended her hand to shake Quinn's. "It was nice to meet you, um…"

"Quinn."

"Quinn, that's a pretty name." Quinn blushed lightly at that. "Well, it was nice to meet you Quinn. I'm Rachel."

"Nice to meet you too, Rachel."

With Rachel finally starting up her homework, Quinn returned to her book. She read for a bit, getting through a few good chapters before deciding to leave the library and head back to her dorm room. Rachel noticed that she was packing up and looked up from her work. "Leaving?" she asked. Quinn nodded and smiled. "Oh. Well, I hope we bump into each other again."

"I'd like that. Bye."

"Bye."

There was a bit of an extra bounce in Quinn's step as she walked down the halls of Crawford. Of course talking with Rachel had been easier than she had imagined in her head and of course she didn't automatically ruin everything. Quinn had just been worrying too much. She felt great and decided to spend the rest of the free time she had left out in the courtyard. The weather was nice enough and her cheery mood was an obvious tell that something had just happened.

While Quinn's roommate wasn't nearly as pushy as Santana, she'd still pry for information. Quinn didn't slip into her room until far later in the day, after having adequate time to soak in the fact that she had had an actual conversation with Rachel. She was still all giddy about it, first crushes and whatnot, so her roommate still tried to interrogate her but Quinn shoved her questions aside and said that she was tired and then promptly went to bed.

Of course Quinn wasn't actually able to go to sleep; her body was still humming, and when she got up the following morning she still had a spring in her step. She simply guessed that that's what love felt like. Quinn ended up seeing Rachel in the hallway, but unlike most instances, she decided to wave at her. Rachel waved back, albeit a bit shyly, and then her friends started to giggle. Quinn slowly brought her hand down. She had a bad feeling about something.

She watched from a distance as Rachel talked to her friends. They looked to be a bit disappointed about something and then Rachel left them and turned towards Quinn. She walked over to her, still looking slightly shy and that made Quinn nervous. "Hey, what was that about?" Of course she had to say that. Everything in her told her not to and yet she still asked that one stupid question.

"Oh, nothing."

"Really?" Jeez, of course she had to question further as well.

"Yeah, I just uh… last night I had remember why you seemed familiar."

"Oh… and how's that?" Oh, it was pointless to even try to stop.

"Nothing important, just um…"

"What?" Get ready for it.

"Well, the thing is that my friends have…"

"Tell me." You are really asking for it, aren't you? "Just tell me Rachel, please."

"Okay," Rachel finally agreed. "Well, my friends. A while back they noticed that there was this new girl in school. She's blond and pretty and… and um…" Oh God, they had noticed her. They had seen her staring. Oh crap. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Quinn must have had some sort of 'deer in the headlights' sort of look because she soon saw Rachel's eyes widening. "You… have you… have you really?"

"Rachel I can explain."

"You've been staring at my ass?!"

Quickly, Quinn went to shut Rachel's mouth. "Not so loud," she pleaded. Rachel's expression softened and she nodded. Quinn pulled her hand away. "I'm sorry. I know I must sound like a total creep, but you're just absolutely gorgeous and beautiful and things here are just so much different from my old school so I wasn't sure how to approach you, and I've never asked out a girl before and I didn't want to mess it up."

"Well next time you should try this; would you like to go out with me this weekend?"

Quinn opened her mouth reply, only for the words to get stuck in her throat once she processed what Rachel had said. "Wait… are you… are you really asking me out?"

Rachel shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe. Only one way to find out."

"Um… I'd love to go out with you this weekend."

"Great!" Rachel leapt up and planted a kiss on Quinn's cheek. "I'll see you then Quinn."

"Yeah… uh… see you… wow."


End file.
